Inspection Detail

Inspection: 63310.015 - Dakota Ag Cooperative

Inspection Information - Office: Bismarck Area Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 5:00 p.m. on June 9, 2011, Employee #1 was pushing corn with a front end loader in a flat storage building. The grain supervisor tried to contact the employee via radio because the corn had stopped flowing through the sump hole onto the lower conveyor. The employee did not respond after three attempts to contact him via radio. The grain supervisor then tried to contact the employee via cell phone. The employee still did not respond. The grain supervisor then instructed a coworker to go to the corn storage building to check on Employee #1. When the employee got to the corn storage building, he found the front end loader running and the cab door open but could not locate Employee #1. A coworker went down into the conveyor tunnel below the corn strorage building to see if Employee #1 had gone down to check on the conveyor. Employee #1 was not in the conveyor tunnel. The grounds around the flat storage building were checked as well. The coworker radioed back to the grain supervisor that he could not locate Employee #1. The grain supervisor went to the flat storage building and assumed the worst that Employee #1 had become engulfed in corn. Emergency personnel were summoned and a rescue attempt was undertaken. Shortly thereafter, the process became a recovery which lasted nearly 9 hours. Employee #1 was recovered from the sump hole in the floor of the flat storage building. There were no witnesses to this event and the reasoning behind why Employee #1 exited the front end loader is still undetermined.

Keywords: Asphyxiated, Grain Elevator